Performance and Knowledge

159 Pages·2021·2.563 MB·English

by  G. N. Devy and Geoffrey V. Davis

PERFORMANCE AND KNOWLEDGE
Part of the series Key Concepts in Indigenous Studies, this book focuses on
the concepts that recur in any discussion of nature, culture and society among
the indigenous. This final volume in the five-volume series deals with the two
key concepts of performance and knowledge of the indigenous people from all
continents of the world. With contributions from renowned scholars, activists and
experts across the globe, it looks at issues and ideas of the indigenous peoples in the
context of imagination, creativity, performance, audience, arts, music, dance, oral
traditions, aesthetics and beauty in North America, South America, Australia, East
Asia and India from cultural, historical and aesthetic points of view.
Bringing together academic insights and experiences from the ground, this
unique book, with its wide coverage, will serve as a comprehensive guide for
students, teachers and scholars of indigenous studies. It will be essential reading
for those in social and cultural anthropology, tribal studies, sociology and social
exclusion studies, cultural studies, media studies and performing arts, literary and
postcolonial studies, religion and theology, politics, Third World and Global South
studies, as well as activists working with indigenous communities.
G. N. Devy is Honorary Professor, Centre for Multidisciplinary Development
Research, Dharwad, India, and Chairman, People’s Linguistic Survey of India.
An award-winning writer and cultural activist, he is known for his 50-volume
language survey. He is Founder Director of the Adivasi Academy at Tejgadh in
Gujarat, India, and was formerly Professor of English at M.S. University of Baroda.
He is the recipient of the Sahitya Akademi Award, Linguapax Prize, Prince Claus
Award and Padma Shri. With several books in English, Marathi and Gujarati, he
has co-edited (with Geoffrey V. Davis and K. K. Chakravarty) Narrating Nomadism:
Tales of Recovery and Resistance (2012), Knowing Differently: The Challenge of the
Indigenous (2013), Performing Identities: Celebrating Indigeneity in the Arts (2014) and
The Language Loss of the Indigenous (2016), published by Routledge.
Geoffrey V. Davis was Professor of Commonwealth and Postcolonial Literatures at
the University of Aachen, Germany. He was international chair of the Association
for Commonwealth Literature and Language Studies (ACLALS) and chair of the
European branch (EACLALS). He co-edited Cross/Cultures: Readings in the Post/
Colonial Literatures and Cultures in English and the African studies series Matatu. His
publications include Staging New Britain: Aspects of Black and South Asian British
Theatre Practice (2006) and African Literatures, Postcolonial Literatures in English: Sources
and Resources (2013).

Key Concepts in Indigenous Studies
Series Editors: G. N. Devy, Honorary Professor, Centre for Multidisciplinary
Development Research, Dharwad, India, and Chairman, People’s Linguistic
Survey of India and Geoffrey V. Davis, former Professor of Commonwealth
and Postcolonial Literatures, University of Aachen, Germany
This series of volumes offers the most systematic and foundational literature available
to date for use by undergraduate and postgraduate students of indigenous studies.
It brings together essays by experts from across the globe on concepts forming the
bedrock of this rapidly growing field in five focused volumes: Environment and Belief
Systems (Vol. 1); Gender and Rights (Vol. 2); Indigeneity and Nation (Vol. 3); Orality
and Language (Vol. 4); and Performance and Knowledge (Vol. 5). These contain short,
informative and easily accessible essays on the perspectives of indigenous communities
from all continents of the world. The essays are written specifically for an international
audience. They thus allow drawing of transnational and cross-cultural parallels, and
form useful material as textbooks as well as texts for general readership. Introducing a
new orientation to traditional anthropology with comprehensive and in-depth studies,
the volumes foreground knowledge traditions and praxis of indigenous communities.
Environment and Belief Systems
Edited by G. N. Devy and Geoffrey V. Davis
Gender and Rights
Edited by G. N. Devy and Geoffrey V. Davis
Indigeneity and Nation
Edited by G. N. Devy and Geoffrey V. Davis
Orality and Language
Edited by G. N. Devy and Geoffrey V. Davis
Performance and Knowledge
Edited by G. N. Devy and Geoffrey V. Davis
For more information about this series, please visit: www.routledge.com/
Key-Concepts-in-Indigenous-Studies/book-series/KCIS
PERFORMANCE AND
KNOWLEDGE
Edited by G. N. Devy and Geoffrey V. Davis
First published 2021
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2021 selection and editorial matter, G. N. Devy and Geoffrey V. Davis; individual chapters,
the contributors
The right of G. N. Devy and Geoffrey V. Davis to be identified as the authors of
the editorial material, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been
asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and
Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised
in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or
hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information
storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation
without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record for this book has been requested
ISBN: 978-0-367-25297-7 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-367-61576-5 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-10558-9 (ebk)
Typeset in Bembo
by Apex CoVantage, LLC
CONTENTS
List of figures ix
Notes on contributors x
Preface xii
Acknowledgements xvi
Introduction 1
G. N. Devy
1 Indigeneity and national celebrations in Latin America:
performative practices and identity politics 9
Ximena Cordova Oviedo
2 Performance in native North America: music and dance 34
Tara Browner
3 Indigenous performing arts in Southeast Asia 54
Kathy Foley
4 Performance in Australia, Aotearoa and the Pacific 75
Tammy Haili‘ōpua Baker, Maryrose Casey, Diana Looser
and David O’Donnell
viii Contents
5 “Theory Coming Through Story”: indigenous knowledges
and Western academia 96
Hartmut Lutz
6 Performance among adivasis and nomads in India 117
G. N. Devy
Index 136
FIGURES
1.1 Oruro Carnival women dancers 22
1.2 Coca offerings during Anata Andina parade 24
1.3 Llama sacrifice during Anata Andina 25
1.4 Supporters of Evo Morales, president of Bolivia 2006–19
and first indigenous president in the Americas 27
2.1 Geographic locations of culture areas commonly recognized
by scholars of native North American music 36
2.2 Undecorated flute in the style common to the Eastern
Woodlands and Great Plains regions 48
2.3 Women’s fancy dancer 50
2.4 Porcupine singers 51
6.1 Babo Pithoro in a house at Tejgadh 129
6.2 Denotified tribe artists in their conventional performance 131
6.3 Nomadic artists performing at Kaleshwari Arts Festival 134